Legislative news digest: LEGAL HOTLINE 25.10.2017

THE UNIFIED REGISTER OF BANK CREDIT INTERMEDIARIES WILL OPERATE

On October 18, 2017, the National Bank of Ukraine started to maintain the unified register of bank credit intermediaries on its official website.

According to the NBU requirements approved in June this year, all intermediaries of the Ukrainian banks providing services in the field of consumer crediting are obliged to meet the transparency criteria and provide end consumers with more complete information about banks, banking products, conditions for obtaining credits, as well as be accountable to consumers for doing this.

For the sake of maintaining permanent control over the quality of services provided, the regulator has obliged all the Ukrainian banks to regularly submit to the NBU information about their intermediaries confirming that these meet the declared criteria and have an impeccable business reputation.

Information about the intermediaries will be posted on the NBU’s official website in the form of a register. A credit intermediary will be able to start its activities only based on its inclusion in such a register.

According to the NBU, these novelties will allow consumers of banking services to obtain detailed information about intermediaries, which should reduce the risk of fraudulent acts.

THE LAUNCH OF THE MEDICAL REFORM

On October 19, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Government Financial Guarantees of Providing Healthcare Services to the Population”.

The Law changes the model of payment for services and introduces contractual relations between doctors and the state. From now on, funds from the state budget will be allocated not to individual medical institutions, but to patients receiving medical services. For each patient, who has applied for medical assistance, the state will allocate a fixed amount of money that will be received not by a hospital, but by the doctor who has concluded a contract with the state and provided relevant services.

It is planned to introduce the state medical guarantee program, which will stipulate making the list of medical services and medicinal products to be provided to patients on a purely paid basis or free of charge. The list of services provided free of charge will include basic services and medicinal products for primary, emergency, and palliative care. The list of paid services will be drawn up by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the future and approved by the Parliament based on the information received from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

It is important that neither doctors, nor suppliers of medicinal products will be able to set prices, other than those stipulated by the program.

The novelties will also include the creation of the National Health Service – a separate executive body with a special status that will act as an insurer and a single purchaser in the centralised procurement of medical services, and monitor compliance with the terms of contracts on providing healthcare services to the population.

“TO WHOM DOES CRIMEA BELONG?”, OR THE BOYCOTT OF 200-RUBLE BANKNOTES

The NBU has forbidden banks and financial institutions to carry out transactions with banknotes and coins of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation with images of symbols, buildings, architectural monuments, and other objects located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The prohibition also applies to transactions carried out during the purchase/sale of foreign currency cash between banks.

THE OMBUDSMAN WILL INFORM SECONDARY LEGAL AID CENTRES ABOUT THE DETENTION OF CITIZENS

The Government has amended the Procedure for informing centres for free secondary legal aid provision about cases of detention, administrative arrest, or use of preventive measures in the form of detention.

In particular, it has settled the issue of the possibility for the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, his/her representatives, or regional offices to inform regional centres for free secondary legal aid provision about cases of detention of persons found during their visits to places where persons are forcibly held under court decisions or decisions of administrative bodies and in accordance with the law.

Thus, persons other than those related to detainees will now be able to address a Centre with a message about the need to provide secondary legal aid to those detained for committing an offence.